GE to Oscar Browning, London, 2 March 1875
Title
GE to Oscar Browning, London, 2 March 1875
Title
GE to Oscar Browning, London, 2 March 1875
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Oscar Browning
Date(s)
- 1875-03-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Oscar Browning, London, 2 March 1875
Text: O. Browning, Life of George Eliot, 1890, p. 122.
Your letter shall be sacred. I am glad to know that you have made up your mind to endure and persevere -- words easy to write as advice, but hard to follow out in the patient action of days, months, years. Perhaps the most difficult heroism is that which consists in the daily conquests of our private demons, not in the slaying of world-notorious dragons. Certainly it seems to me that the finest course of action you can pursue will be to impose the utmost restraint on impatience, and look at your life simply as the problem of carrying out your ideas of usefulness at Eton as far as may be without dangerous collisions. 217 To further this happiness and beneficence of your life -- even apart from that question of your dear mother's feeling -- you should have a precise conception of an alternative to your present task, 218 an equivalent social contribution, before you unlink yourself. But I gather that your resolution is thoroughly formed, and I rejoice.
We shall see you at the end of this fiercely menacing March. You are young enough to dare travel at that time of year which we used to find everywhere cruel, south as well as north.
Text: O. Browning, Life of George Eliot, 1890, p. 122.
Your letter shall be sacred. I am glad to know that you have made up your mind to endure and persevere -- words easy to write as advice, but hard to follow out in the patient action of days, months, years. Perhaps the most difficult heroism is that which consists in the daily conquests of our private demons, not in the slaying of world-notorious dragons. Certainly it seems to me that the finest course of action you can pursue will be to impose the utmost restraint on impatience, and look at your life simply as the problem of carrying out your ideas of usefulness at Eton as far as may be without dangerous collisions. 217 To further this happiness and beneficence of your life -- even apart from that question of your dear mother's feeling -- you should have a precise conception of an alternative to your present task, 218 an equivalent social contribution, before you unlink yourself. But I gather that your resolution is thoroughly formed, and I rejoice.
We shall see you at the end of this fiercely menacing March. You are young enough to dare travel at that time of year which we used to find everywhere cruel, south as well as north.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Oscar Browning, London, 2 March 1875, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/93758